Q1: Why in the world did it take me so long to finish?
A: Believe it or not, this book took almost 10 years to make. The most recent break was because I lost inspiration and motivation. I wanted to keep this book active and continue it but I didn't want to half-butt it either. I knew where I wanted the book to end and had no way to get there.
Q2: 10 years?! How?
A: I started the original version of this fanfic way back when I joined Wattpad in 2013. I went through major writer's blocks and rushed the story. I was a young teen when I started writing and as I grew, my writing changed along with me. I started the rewrite in 2018 despite publishing chapter 1 in early 2021.
Q3: In 2013/2014, when the Percy Jackson ff was at an all-time high?
Yeah. It went through various name changes:
1. Dark Princess (2014)
2. Pernicious Affection (2016)
3. Ticking Clock (2020)
I had a lot of reads during the original writing period and I'd like to give a special thanks to hellotherealien , notaboobjob , FanfictionLoverGurl , yourlandlord , and lucayalust . Y'all might not even be reading this story anymore but thank you for your past support for this story.
Q4: How much did things change from my OG version?
A: A lot. I originally had thought of doing 3 books. I did a significant plot rewrite and made it more of a slow burn between my OC and Percy (a very slow burn). With that came changing the type of fanfiction that it was. Here are the biggest plot and character rewrites I did:
1. Originally, Desirae was Jayden and was a much more eccentric 16-year-old. She was written the way most 13-year-olds write teen characters (She also might have been Jackson at one point, I don't remember). 2. Camila was also a demigod in the original version. She kept the same name though. 3. The person who is now Marcus was originally an abusive parental figure. I'm really glad I changed that. 4. She originally lived in Florida and worked in her step-dad's restaurant/circus (Don't really know how that would work bc just even thinking about the many health code violations there would be in this fictional restaurant gives me a migraine). 5. She and Percy fell in love real quick and at one point would fake a relationship in one way or another. 6. She originally had violet eyes and didn't get her period. In other words, my dream life. 7. The first plot took heavy inspiration from the first PJO book. Like, it was basically the same thing. 8. There were a few "fight" scenes (they were taken out because I don't know how to fight or to write fight scenes). 9. In her original backstory, a fridge fell on her as a child and she survived. 10. She was originally Latina. 11. Percy and Annabeth had a nasty breakup where he essentially left her for the OC.
Like I said, the biggest changes. I decided to make it more of an AU so that I could freely write what I had in mind without having to stick to the original storyline set by Rick Riordan and not need anything to be 100% accurate.
Q5: What made me get into the fanfiction business?
A: I was, am, and forever will be a book nerd. I always loved the creative writing assignments my English teacher gave us and would go to some of my friends for revisions. They liked my works and thought that they were good. When one of my friends introduced our circle to Wattpad back in middle school, everything clicked. I decided to write a Percy Jackson fanfiction because the second PJ movie came out and I was appalled for a second time (the first time being the first movie). I was like, "I could write something better than that and add my own character...". So I did. Or at least I think I did.
Q6: What comes next?
A: Well, I'm hoping to make a second and final book. It will definitely take me much longer to write because now I have other things going on like work and a YouTube Channel (it's not super popular or anything but I edit everything myself so that also takes a lot of time). I think the second book kind of has nothing to do with the PJO Universe. I mean, yeah some of the characters and stuff, but it's definitely a continuation of the AU. Back in 2015/16, I took a tumble into the "Percy being betrayed by everyone and being adopted by Chaos and becoming commander of his army with other fallen campers and somewhat forced to fight alongside everyone who betrayed him against a common enemy" rabbit hole on here and that's when I started thinking about changing the plot. At that point, what I had originally written seemed so lacking.
Q7: Are you working on anything else?
A: I am certainly working on it. I want to write a RWBY fanfiction. I've been watching RWBY since it first came out and I love that I grew with the show. As the animation got better, so did my writing and creative thinking process. I want to stick to the storyline but I ████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ██████. I'm making her, her team, and her family by using VROID, which I don't know how to use at all so please help. I am trying to write a murder mystery series and rewrite a sci-fi story that I wrote when I was in grades 7-8. If anyone wants to be a beta reader for those you can send me a dm. I also have a bunch of fanfics plotted out on mindmaps but haven't gotten past that yet.
Q8: Which part of Ticking Clock was hardest to write?
A: It had to be the Epilogue. So the epilogue is basically what happened in the time jump I did about ⅔ (-ish) of the way through chapter 7. Essentially, I had parts 'A' and 'C' without knowing what part 'B' was going to be. It was hard to fill in that blank after. I should have written it chronologically and then cut out the part I'd need for later. But I didn't. Like a dummy.
Q9: Why did you pick the casting that you did?
A: I picked out who I wanted to play the PJO characters first. I wanted them to be the aged-up versions of their characters, so I used the descriptions of these characters that are on the official wiki page (except for Grover. I actually really liked that in the movie he was a POC). For my OCs, I tried to picture different faces as the character. I would look at different actors/ actresses and think: Could I picture these words coming out of their mouths? Could I see them make this facial expression? Could their face fit the name and personality I've built for this character no matter how little they appear in the story?
Q10: Anything else?
A: Yeah! I wanna hear from you guys! So I have some questions for you:
1. What was your favorite chapter? Why?
2. Who was your favorite character?
3. What was your favorite scene/line?
4. Is there anything you'd personally like to see in the next book (whenever I get to it)?
ℚ𝕌𝔼𝕊𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ𝕊 𝔽ℝ𝕆𝕄 𝕐𝕆𝕌
If you have any questions that I haven't answered, you can put them here. I'll update this chapter with the question and answer them as soon as I can. They can be about anything you want.
